Mark Viduka: I don't remember you Eamonn!

Socceroos stars Jason Culina and Mark Viduka were accosted by yours truly in the lobby of their hotel in Bangkok.

They took time to chat and have a photo, despite this being their day off.

"Hi Mark, I work for the Canberra Times, would you mind a photo."

"No problem." says Mark.

"Jason too?"

"Sure." says Jason

"Hey Mark I played against you when you were in Canberra playing for the AIS, in the Canberra Premier League."

"Yeah, which team."

"I was with Canberra Olympic. (Pause) Don't you remember me?"

"No." says Mark.

So there's my claim to fame. No, not that I played against Mark Viduka, but that he doesn't remember me:)

Not your greatest game Mark Viduka!

Mark Viduka struggled to impress tonight in the Asian Cup.

A disappointed Mark Viduka talks in the mixed zone after the game.

Viduka and Tim Cahill kept all the players waiting along time as the Thai media and Aussie media bombarded them with questions.

Viduka is speaking to Massimiliano Civili from SBS Radio.

Max, as he is known, asks the questions in English and the player responds in another language. In this case Croatian.

Viduka was amused by this idea, but wanted Max to ask the questions in Croatian if he had to answer in Croatian.

Eventually Max explained it was for Croatian listeners and Viduka, impressively, listened in Australian and spoke in Croatian.

Urgent phone call from Mark Viduka...cancelled

Would you get out of bed at 6am for Mark Viduka?

Viduka to play, it's all okay.

About 5pm last night I received an urgent message from the FFA.

Very big announcement re:Socceroos tomorrow. Teleconference at 6am

Nothing more nothing less.

I had two thoughts.

Could I be bothered getting out of bed, I'm in Canberra, its cold and a I just love my bed!

Second thought: What could it be? It had to be something from Europe, at that time of day.

Viduka, to be captain? Lowy to announce new coach, Kewell, what to play, hardly worth getting everyone out of bed for.

And then FFA inform me, just ten minutes, later that its all cancelled, forget it, stay in bed....

And this morning Viduka has come out of retirement and plays.

I didn't know he was retired? Didn't he play against China? Wasn't he named in the squad?

Anyway I got to stay in bed, and Viduka plays. All good:)

Socceroos preparations in disarray?

Socceroos preparation for the 2007 Asia Cup is looking frail.

The Socceroos play Uruguay on June 2nd in Sydney and were supposed to play Argentina in Melbourne on June 6th. The Argentinean game has been postponed leaving little time to organise a new opponent.

After the Uruguay game, the players will have a two-week break before heading to Singapore on June 21 for a training camp and friendly against the Singaporean national team.

Most European seasons finish early May so it could have been better to give the players a longer break, say 3 to 4 weeks, then bring them back mid-June for the Uruguay international before heading off to Singapore.

Looks like the FFA may have got this one wrong? What do you think?